An Old/New Friend

Posted on Sep 4, 2009

It was like meeting an old friend. Not old in the “aged” sense mind you,…”old” in the I-feel-like-I-have-known-her-forever sense. I recognized her immediately, though now I’m not exactly sure how. I guess I’ve seen photos of her before, but I don’t think I ever really committed her features to memory. She recognized me right away too – though I don’t know if it was the red bag I was carrying (I had emailed her letting her know what I was wearing) that gave me away.

We hugged, exchanged hellos and got down to the business of ordering coffees. Turned out we both favoured the same afternoon cold-coffee fix on warm summer days, which again made me wonder if somehow, somewhere we had met before. Out to a patio we sauntered, both of us eyeing shoes and bags as we passed a few high end retailers inside of the huge corporate building wherein the Starbucks was housed.

Oh, and a note – Jasmine is not a Starbuckker. Apparently that is one thing on which we differ.

We sat in the shade and sipped our coffees, talking about this and that, commenting on food (of course) and the meal she had just indulged in (Terroni – check her blog for a full report – with pictures! – which I am sure is coming soon) before meeting up with me. Every once in a while we had to stop talking or yell loudly at each other as the U.S. Navy Blue Angels flew over, practicing for the CNE Airshow this weekend.

We talked about our lives, our families, our friends. We compared recent trips to Ottawa and talked about living in Toronto (I do, she doesn’t). The conversation meandered back and forth and before I knew it an hour was up and unfortunately I had to head back to the office.

I could have sat there all afternoon. Just the two of us – oh, and a “companion” who insisted on taste-testing Jasmine’s coffee himself. It was nice to finally meet her in person and hope we’ll have the opportunity to do it again sometime soon.

As for her invitation to head up to the St. Jacobs market…I am decidedly interested. Let’s go!